


tell the world that I'm coming (home)

by aserenitatum



Category: Lizzie McGuire (TV)
Genre: F/F, set twenty years after The Lizzie McGuire Movie, this is the only thing I want from the revival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 23:57:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20714699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aserenitatum/pseuds/aserenitatum
Summary: “Well, well, well,” an all too familiar voice says. “If it isn’t Lizzie McGuire. I see you haven’t changed at all.”“Kate?” she asks, not entirely convinced her brain isn’t playing one big trick on her. “Kate Sanders?”“In the flesh,” the woman confirms with a tilt of the head, gaze raking down her body in a scrutinising way but contrary to how Kate used to judge every aspect of her, when those eyes lock on hers again, they’re not filled with scorn, an almost delighted smile tugging at her lips. “What’s it been, like, twenty years?”or, the one where Kate and Lizzie bump into each other as adults





	tell the world that I'm coming (home)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [becamitchill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/becamitchill/gifts).

> listen, I’m gonna be real with you. I don’t know what this is either. all I know is that one minute I'm watching The Lizzie McGuire Movie and the next, I'm writing Lizzie/Kate fanfic; I'm just as surprised as you are.  
shoutout to the people who were supportive of me doing this madness, you know who you are x
> 
> In any case, give it a read and hope you enjoy xx

_ There is nothing that makes you revert back to your teenage self quite as much as going home._

It’s the first thing that races through mind a second after she bumps into a stranger and sends his beer toppling to the ground. The glass doesn’t break and the floor is already sticky so it’s not the first time that beer’s been dropped that night, but she still feels absolutely mortified by that temporary return of her clumsiness. 

She’s apologising to the man and trying to offer him a new drink when a familiar voice cuts through all the noise of the bar, clear as day and far too familiar. 

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Lizzie McGuire,” the voice says. “I see you haven’t changed at all.” 

The very last person she expects to see in the seedy bar back in their hometown is Kate Sanders but there she is, hair just as blonde as Elizabeth remembers and dressed far too nicely for the dark and smoky establishment. 

“Kate?” she asks, not entirely convinced her brain isn’t playing one big trick on her. 

“In the flesh,” the woman confirms with a tilt of the head, gaze raking down Elizabeth’s body in a scrutinising way but contrary to how she used to judge every aspect of her, when those eyes lock on hers again, they’re not filled with scorn, an almost delighted smile tugging at her lips. “What’s it been, like, twenty years?” 

“Almost,” she confirms with a wry smile as she steps closer to the bar, the man behind it recognising her and throwing a nod her way after she says, “The usual.” 

Kate watches the interaction with interest, sips from her tumbler and crosses one leg over the other and Elizabeth’s eyes are drawn to the movement, noting the tight skirt and how it rides slightly up her thigh. 

“Is this seat taken?” she finds herself asking before she knows what she’s doing, gesturing to the empty barstool next to Kate’s. 

“Go ahead.” 

“You know,” she starts as she slides onto the seat and twists to face Kate, taking a moment to watch the flickering candlelight play across her matured features. “I never thought I’d see you again.” 

“I never thought I’d be back here again,” Kate throws back with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She glances at her when a drink makes its way into Elizabeth’s hand. “Cheers,” she says, holding up her own glass and Elizabeth clinks hers against it. 

“Have you been back long?” she asks. 

She’s not sure what it is about Kate that had made her want to sit down next to her or even inquire about her life, but the way the woman had just up and disappeared as a teenager after they’d returned from their school trip to Rome had always kept Elizabeth curious. There’s something about Kate that lures her in, maybe the permanently set half-smile on her lips or the fact that she doesn’t seem to be filled with familiar teenage wrath anymore and instead has a sort of stillness about her, but Elizabeth is intrigued and for the moment, Kate is the most interesting thing in the whole damn town and despite seeing that Kate has clearly grown out of her bullying phase, she’s willing to risk any misjudgment or proof of the contrary if it means just a little bit more excitement in this dead town.

“Just a few days.” 

Her tone brokers no leniency so Elizabeth doesn’t inquire further, just nods slowly as she sips from her glass. 

“How about you?” she says then, turning those calculating blue eyes onto Elizabeth and she’s momentarily frozen in the intensity of the look. “Still living in town? Married your high school sweetheart? Two-point-five children? A dog and a white picket fence?” 

She’s not sure if Kate’s joking or not but just the idea of it all has Elizabeth laughing loudly, doubling over with the force of it and clutching her stomach the longer she laughs. 

When Kate doesn’t laugh along, Elizabeth realises that the question had been genuine and that just makes her laugh harder, almost choking on her breath as she tries to get air into her lungs while giggles escape her and it feels good almost, her whole body feeling lighter in a way it hasn’t in weeks. 

“No,” is all she chokes out when Kate’s brow furrows at the reaction her question had elicited. She wipes at her eyes quickly just to make sure her mascara isn’t running before taking a deep, satisfying breath. “God, I’m so sorry for—but _ no _.” 

Kate’s shoulders soften just slightly then as she uncrosses and recrosses her legs. 

“I don’t even live here anymore,” she starts and at Kate’s interested glance her way, she continues. “Gordo and I broke up like halfway through high school and then I moved away for college. No picket fence, no kids, and no dogs.” 

“No husband either?” she asks, a strange glint in her eyes that Elizabeth is drawn to. 

“Nope,” she confirms and she’s pleasantly surprised when Kate holds out her glass for another clink.

“So what brings you back home, Lizzie McGuire?” 

“God, I haven’t been called that in years,” she says because it’s the second time Kate’s used her full name and it’s so jarring to hear, highlighting the surreality of them sitting next to each other in a bar twenty years later. “My own parents don’t even call me that anymore.” 

“Lizzie?” 

“Mhm-hm,” she nods. “It’s Elizabeth now. Or Liz.” 

“Elizabeth,” Kate tries, rolling the word around in her mouth and twisting her lips in consideration. “That’s so… weird. _ Elizabeth _.” 

“You can call me Liz,” she tries to suggest with a soft laugh at how much trouble Kate’s having with the change but then again, she can’t blame the woman. A lot of time may have passed but it’s hard to reconfigure the mental picture you have of someone, something she’s all too familiar with as she tries to reconcile the woman in front of her with the memory she’d had of her for twenty years. 

“That’s even worse,” she says then but the words aren’t malicious, her head giving a soft shake and a few strands loosen from where she’s tied her blonde hair into a messy bun at the nape of her neck. “That just makes me want to say Lizzie.” 

Elizabeth chuckles softly and tries not to get too hung up on how odd it feels to sit there and reminisce with someone she had a volatile, and mostly antagonistic relationship with, but the trip to Italy — and having to room with Kate — really was a change in their dynamic and even now, years later, she’ll never forget that despite Kate’s horrible treatment of her and her friends in middle school, she completely and happily covered for her multiple times while they’d been in Rome and even cheered her on at one point.

There’s a part of her that wonders what it would have been like had they gone to the same high school after returning from that trip. She wouldn’t have expected them all to be best friends suddenly but a kinder relationship and maybe even a friendship could have been in the cards for them. Then again, it could also have gone in the complete opposite way so Elizabeth never lingers on that what if for too long. 

“Where did you go?” she blurts out, breaking the lull in their conversation. Kate’s brow furrows as she tries to place the words, so she elaborates. “After Italy. You were just gone.” 

“My parents got divorced so I went back to California with my mom.” 

“Oh,” Elizabeth says, the word drawn out as she internally curses herself for even asking. 

Something on her face must give her away because Kate’s expression eases then, a sad smile taking over her features as she looks deep into the bottom of her glass. 

“Kind of shitty to find out your parents sent you to Rome so they could finalise their divorce but hey, at least they weren’t fighting all the time anymore,” she says with a clearly forced shrug as she takes another sip of her drink. “Whatever, it all worked out in the end.” 

“You still out there?” Elizabeth asks, desperate to move them onto a safer topic and at Kate’s eager nod she can see that the woman is more than happy with the shift. “What do you do out there?” 

“I’m a criminal defence lawyer.” 

She whistles, impressed. “Wow.” 

“Thanks,” Kate says with a genuine smile. “How ‘bout you?” 

“I’m a writer.” 

“Really?” 

“Is that so surprising?” she can’t help but taunt and she gets a roll of the eyes in response to her words but the playful smile on Kate’s face is unmistakable. 

“Not really, I suppose,” Kate says in a low voice and Elizabeth swears she sees the woman’s eyes drop briefly. “Write anything I’d have read?” 

“Do you read the New Yorker?” 

“I live in LA.” 

“I’m taking that as a no.” 

“Correct,” Kate confirms, corners of her mouth twitching with amusement but then her gaze narrows, head tilts as she regards Elizabeth again. “So what’s a New Yorker writer doing back home? Can’t imagine there are many think pieces to write about this place.” 

The words send Elizabeth’s playful mood crashing down around her and her gaze darts away from Kate’s, down to her glass as she tries to buy herself time by finishing the drink but it had been almost empty already so she’s done way too quickly. 

“I just needed to get out of the city for a bit,” she says softly. 

The words are practically an invitation to pry but at the silence she looks up and when she meets those calculating blue eyes, she can see that Kate’s not going to ask further, offering her the same benefit of privacy that Elizabeth had granted her moments before. 

She has zero interest in rehashing the aspects of her life that have led her to seek refuge back home and one of the main reasons she’s even in the bar on the outskirts of town is because she hadn’t expected to run into anybody she knows or anybody who’d pry and ask and try to play therapist to her life’s issues. 

But Kate doesn’t ask, and she’s grateful for it, and it’s all so _ weird _ and Elizabeth wants to say something to break the silence but she doesn’t know what so she remains quiet. 

Mercifully, Kate flags down the bartender and orders new drinks for them and tells him to put them on her tab. 

“Thanks,” Elizabeth says. 

“It’s the least I could do after torturing you through middle school.” 

It’s as close to an apology as they’re going to get and she knows that, so she takes the drink as Kate’s very belated white flag and they toast to it, falling into a comfortable silence filled only by the men yelling over by the billiards table and the jukebox playing an old Aerosmith song. 

“Whatever happened to that wheel of cheese?” Kate says suddenly. 

“What?” she asks, completely baffled by the question. 

“I was just thinking about the class trip to Rome,” Kate explains with a vague gesture. “And didn’t you get a wheel of cheese? Whatever happened to it?” 

A short, sharp laugh bubbles out of her at the complete non sequitur. 

“You didn’t bring it back to the hotel.”

“I gave it to Paolo, I think,” she says as she tries to think back. The whole trip to Rome seems like a weird hallucination and were it not for the many pictures and videos keeping a record of it, she’d have thought it was all a figment of her imagination. 

“He really turned out to be a douchebag, huh?” Kate says with a laugh that Elizabeth echoes. 

“You know, I couldn’t have gotten away with any of it if it weren’t for you,” she says, propping her arm up against the bar and leaning her chin on it while looking at Kate. “You kept covering for me.” 

“Yeah well…” Kate shrugs but pink creeps up her neck to her cheeks and Elizabeth is delighted by the sight of it. “I figured, why deny you your fun?” 

Elizabeth bites her tongue to hold in the quip that Kate had actively worked to suppress any fun in her life all throughout middle school and a quick glance her way and the quirk of a badly-hidden, guilty smile lets her know that Kate knows exactly what she’s thinking. 

“Let’s just say Italy was the start of me no longer denying you fun,” Kate finally says and this time she definitely looks down at the low cut of Elizabeth’s blouse and oh, now _ that’s _ interesting. 

The frisson of heat that crawls down her spine is a little surprising but not at all unwelcome and Elizabeth has grown too curious for her own good so she leans slightly forward as she reaches for her drink and Kate’s eyes drop again to the newly exposed skin before she looks away and swallows thickly. 

The hazy lighting of the bar does nothing to hide the flush creeping up her neck, and Elizabeth watches Kate over the rim of her glass as the woman reaches for her own drink to take a sip.

“I don’t know…” she starts to say, her voice dropping enough to catch Kate’s attention and to effectively put her on notice. “I enjoy a bit of denial every once in a while.” 

Kate takes a moment to process the words, her hand slowly lowering her tumbler back to the bar top as a sly smile unfurls. She doesn’t turn her body towards Elizabeth but her eyes slowly wander that way until they’re staring at each other, Kate’s eyes dark and devious. 

Elizabeth doesn’t back down from the look, her index finger swirling along the rim of her glass almost lazily as she quirks an eyebrow in challenge. 

There’s a sort of crackle in the air as they remain still and looking at each other, like the space between them is loaded with electricity and neither of them is willing to take another step in either direction for fear of it fizzling out. 

And Elizabeth finds that she doesn’t want it to snap and dissipate; the years have been incredibly kind to Kate and any softness that she’d carried as a young teen has made way for all sharp angles and lush curves and things had always been spirited between them but for the first time Elizabeth finds herself drawn to it, wanting to explore it.

“How long are you in town for?” Kate asks bluntly, issuing a notice of her own: message received and returned. 

Elizabeth shrugs, giving a small shake of the head as her wrist twists and her fingers flutter vaguely. “You?” 

“At least another week.” 

“I can work with that.” 

“Oh, can you?” Kate taunts and Elizabeth enjoys the flash of ire that accompanies the words, noting with some measure of glee that not all of Kate’s old spark has disappeared. 

Still, she tuts and shakes her head with faux disapproval. “And we were making such progress,” she chides. 

Kate rolls her eyes expertly and Elizabeth’s eyes are drawn to the taut lines in her neck when she tips her head back to finish her drink. The glass makes a loud clinking sound when she sets it back on the bar and there’s a sort of finality to it even as her fingers stay curled around the glass and this time when Kate rakes her gaze down her body, the intensity of her stare feels almost like a caress and Elizabeth has to work hard to suppress a shiver, knows that she wouldn’t be able to hide it from those keen, all-seeing eyes. 

“Let’s get out of here,” she suggests lowly, more a statement than a question and Kate’s already flagging down the bartender to pay her tab and within minutes they’re standing outside, the fresh air almost taunting them into backing out of this delicate balance. 

“Do you have a car?” Kate asks after they stand just shy of the entrance for far longer than is considered normal. 

Elizabeth glances sideways at her and when their eyes lock, the decision is made. 

“Yes.” 

Sitting in a parked car out in the middle of nowhere and having filthy words of encouragement whispered into her ear while she’s knuckle deep inside Kate Sanders isn’t exactly what her teenage self would’ve imagined coming home would entail, but then again her life has always been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride and she’s going to enjoy this ride for as long as she can. 

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you thought xx


End file.
